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Not Quite Fixed
Title: Not Quite Fixed Players: Heather O'Leary, Elizabeth Maxwell, Alexis Ayala, and Pyotr Zagadka Location: Maxwell Ranch Synopsis: Heather is checking out the Squad Ships, and than, a problem is discovered with a Skyfighter. LOG BEGINS: Heather O'Leary is underneath one of the Squad Ships, checking it over. She can be heard muttering about a busted hydraulic line, or something like that. Elizabeth Maxwell glances over towards the ship in question, and starts quietly slipping towards it, smiling. She slips around the opposite side from the one Heather is under, and underneath, to kiss Heather on the cheek. "Hi there. Which line is being a problem?" Heather O'Leary points to one of the landing struts, "This line has burst... Lucky the damned thing is extended... We'll be OK, until we take off. Either the Strut won't come up, or if it does, it won't land..." She reaches into her belt, and pulls out a screwdriver with the special 'Visitor Screw type' extension on it, and begins to remove the clamp holding the Line. "The problem is, I have never changed one of these and I'm not sure where it connects..." Elizabeth Maxwell glances at it, and hmms. "We'll have to either check with the plans from the computer downstairs, or we'll just have to pop a few more panels off, then. Tracing it down to where it does." Heather O'Leary nods slightly, and hmms, "Think someone could get us a Computer in here? I noticed a port to plug a Maintenance Computer Plug into... Will quickly show the Schematics of a Skyfighter or Squad Ship, if linked via a Network to the Computer with the Schematics... I think in one of the lots of stuff we grabbed off the Mothership, we got a Maintenance Computer... We could fix these things faster... Especially if someone uploaded a Translator program to drop the Sirian.. Although, I am starting to pick it up a little. Like..." She motions to a panel covering, "That says: Caution (Or Danger), And something about Electrical Hazard." It actually says 'Beware of Electrical Shock', but not bad for a Human. Elizabeth Maxwell hmms a little bit and nods. "I'll look around for it then, so we can plug it in." She glances at the panel, nodding. "Yup. Electrical shock hazard. Lovely as it is." She glances it over. "Want me to go look for it now, then?" Heather O'Leary shrugs, "I can trace this back to the Hydraulic Fluid Storage... Although, with this leak here, we might need to get more fluid to fill it with...." Elizabeth Maxwell hmms a little and nods. "Suppose so...." She looks it over some. "Want me to help?" Heather O'Leary smiles, "If you want..." Her fingers follow the trail of the line up and into the Squad Ship. "First panel to get off... that one..." She looks closely, "Hkhtssthrak?" Of course, her pronunciation is WAY off... Elizabeth Maxwell smiles a little bit, and starts opening up the panel, laughing slightly at the pronunciation, and popping it open. "Hard to pronounce most of it right, I'm sure. People wondered why I didn't say anything for a long time after they knew I could read, but its mostly because it took me a while to get English to come out entirely right." She corrects the pronunciation then. "It's the tongue, both ways." Heather O'Leary nods slightly and bingo, 'Hkhtssthrak' must mean Hydraulic System, or something, cause there is the Hydraulic Pump... and the Storage for the Hydraulic Fluid. Elizabeth Maxwell glances into the panel, and scratches her head a little bit. "Hmm..." Heather O'Leary taps the Hydraulic Fluid storage device and smirks, "Damn, they think of everything... The line must have something in them to prevent fluid escape when one busts..." She takes the clamp off the end connected to the pump, and a small splash of reddish Hydraulic fluid comes down, on her hands, but not much at all. She pulls the hose out, and looks it over carefully, "There it is... small rupture... Looks like a standard Hydraulic line though... we should have something here to replace it with, without having to go find a broken down Ship to steal pieces from..." Elizabeth Maxwell hmms a little and nods. "Well, that's a good thing at least. We should have some hydraulic line around..." She slips up and starts looking around. "Might even have some in here, I'd hope..." Heather O'Leary chuckles, "I tried to bring all the parts over from the old barn...." She is studying the Hydraulic Pump, waiting for Liz to get another line. "Wonder how to get it to flow into the new line, if it has a self sealing connection... Might have to bleed the system of air, and hope that will do it..." Elizabeth Maxwell nods a little bit, digging up a length, and something to cut it with. "Here's some line..." She considers. "I'd have to look at it. Hopefully that'll work..." Heather O'Leary pokes the hole where the Hose connects to the storage system, and is splashed with a large splash of Hydraulic fluid. She sputters a bit, and says, "I think I figured it out.... We'll still have to bleed the System of air, but it will detect the vacuum, and send the fluid in to fill the line...." She reaches for a rag in her back pocket, and tries to get the Fluid off her face, nasty smelling and tasting, stuff. Elizabeth Maxwell laughs a little as Heather gets splashed, shaking her head. "Ew..." She slips back over, and gets a couple paper towels soaped and wetted, grabbing a couple dry ones as well, and walking over to clean Heather's face off. "Silly Heather." Heather O'Leary shrugs, "Better than Avgas, or Engine Oil..." She lets Liz clean her face, and shrugs. "Got that Hose? This is the last of the problems I saw... At least, without going into the Computers...." Elizabeth Maxwell hands over the length she dug up previously, and the knife. "Here you go, honey." she kisses softly. "I'll get the computer when it's on. I'll run the fighter through its diagnostic checks as well..." Heather O'Leary shakes her head slightly, while fitting the hose where it needs to go, by the shortest length possible, "Easier to do a full maintenance Check on a Maintenance Computer. The onboard systems are never accurate enough... Especially if a Connection goes down between the computer and another system..." Elizabeth Maxwell smiles at Heather and scritches a little bit, nodding. "Yeah... all right." she smiles. "I'll be right back, then." She stops to kiss Heather on the lips, before she goes out. Heather O'Leary returns the kiss, and should, by the time Liz gets back, have this Hydraulic Line attaches. Elizabeth Maxwell smiles, slipping out for the computer. After several minutes, she comes back, with a portable computer unit in hand, walking back for Heather again. "Here it is..." Heather O'Leary is just pushing out from under the Squad Ship, "Good... Just in time." She stands up, and looks at the computer, "There should be a plug on that thing somewhere...." Elizabeth Maxwell opens up a port on the side, pulling an extending cord out of it. "Right here..." Heather O'Leary chuckles, "Better than one of the Techs at Cal Tech, in a crunch, aren't you love?" She takes the plug, and inserts it into the port on the Squad Ship. Elizabeth Maxwell laughs, opening the rest of the computer up, and starting to type into it for its diagnostic sequence. "hmm... now lets see..." Heather O'Leary moves to look at the Computer, curious if anything shows up as needing fixed. Elizabeth Maxwell smiles, scritching Heather's hair, and watching the display as well, waiting for the report. The Report shows nothing abnormal. Although, Heather can't tell... Elizabeth Maxwell smiles a little bit and nods at the computer. "Checks out as all being normal. We should probably run all of them through this, now that we have it, though. Just to make sure we always fixed them all right..." Elizabeth Maxwell blushes a little. "Starting with 570." Heather O'Leary arches an eyebrow, "What happened to 570?" Alexis Ayala walks out of the infirmary, looking around a bit as she does. There is a shotgun slung over her shoulder as she walks. Elizabeth Maxwell glances over at Heather and laughs a little bit. "You don't remember? 570 is the one that I almost totally rebuilt, after getting shot down in it. I've been worried about it ever since..." Heather O'Leary shrugs, "I keep track of them based on the small dots on the side. Not sure what that indicates though. 570? That is the one with 5 Vertical and 3 Horizontal dots on it." She and Elizabeth are peering at a computer, obviously of Visitor make, that is plugged into a Squad Ship. Elizabeth Maxwell points over to the fighter. "If any of the numbers are still on it, probably. It has a couple places where you actually see that some panels are a little bit brighter than some others, because of the condition of some of the pieces used to put it back to put it back together." Alexis Ayala hmms, looking in their direction, showing a bit of interest, "What does that do?" Heather O'Leary nods slightly, "Well, let's check it out first than. I've flown it a few times since you fixed it up." She looks over at Alexis, and says, "It is like a Diagnostic Computer a Mechanic uses to talk to the Computers inside a Car, or Jet Plane, to see what kind of damage may be done to it." Alexis Ayala nods softly, "Oh, okay, so it's kind of like the instrumentation used to read a black box, and the instrumentation to read the computers, at the same time?" Elizabeth Maxwell smiles a little bit. "Or like the computers plugged into a car's engine computer, yeah. Essentially running checks for system problems, vehicle wide." Heather O'Leary smiles, "Pretty much..." She takes the plug out of the Squad Ship, and moves over to Skyfighter 570... She plugs it in, "All right Liz'Beth, check it..." She mutters, "And get the thing to speak English..." Alexis Ayala blinks, following after her, "You can do that?" Heather O'Leary nods slightly, "Well, since the Visitors can, and we captured some of their Technology, we can as well..." Elizabeth Maxwell laughs a little at Heather. "I will, just for you, after I read it myself. I still don't trust the translation program totally for something this exacting, so...." She smiles, and plugs the computer in, setting it up on the little part-wing of the fighter to look at. Alexis Ayala hmms, and nods, "OH, okay, I guess I can certainly understand that." Heather O'Leary leans against the Sky Fighter, and glances at Liz, "Just tell me if there is anything we need to check out..." That is, of course, if all the re-wiring was done correctly... Elizabeth Maxwell nods a little bit, running the sequence, and checking the display quickly. "I'm gonna try to run as much as I can from this computer, there's some duplication of tests, especially for things like wiring, where if it were bad, the computer might not read right... Running the wiring checks now..." Alexis Ayala kinda moves a little closer, trying to look over someone's shoulder. Heather O'Leary nods slightly, and remains away from the computer. She doesn't speak Visitorese, err, Sirian, so she can't read what the Computer spits back as the test results. Alexis Ayala makes a face at the results. Elizabeth Maxwell watches the screen carefully, taking note of everything run across the screen with a slight frown. "It's not detecting any issues so far at least..." Then it spits a different string of characters back. "Oops. One of the computer hookups to the main reactor is on backwards...." She watches. "Guess that's it, fix that and we can run the full test normally." Heather O'Leary nods, and asks, "Which one? Inside the Ship, or outside?" Alexis Ayala blinks softly, "That doesn't sound very good." she says, "Guess this really wouldn't be my field though, tell me how to hack a computer and I'll hand you a fireman's axe..." Heather O'Leary rolls her eyes, "We should get Pyotr out here... that Russian really likes Computers...." She reaches for her radio. Heather O'Leary says, "Pyotr, Comrade? You have some time to help Elizabeth and me with Visitor Computers?" Pyotr Zagadka says, "Pyotr here. I be there shortly. Need to grab laptop way." Elizabeth Maxwell smiles a little. "Inside the ship... the one from the main computers. That might be why it was a little iffy when I was adjusting the engine. I thought it was just tuned a little bit off..." She hmms. Heather O'Leary says, "We have a Visitor Diagnostic Computer attached to the Visitor Skyfighter...." Alexis Ayala hmms, "I'm technical with guns, but...this...this is a bit...okay, way beyond me..." Heather O'Leary nods slightly, and slips into the Skyfighter. After a few minutes, and some loud cursing, enough to make a sailor proud, she steps out, holding a slightly singed hand, and she says, "Switched... Mind you, the hookup reversed the polarity of the computer system and shocked the hell out of me... I'll be fine. Check the thing now." Alexis Ayala blinks softly, "Ouch!" she says, "Don't you have...tools, for doing that sort of thing?" Elizabeth Maxwell keeps watching the screen, and taps on it a little. "Er... ouch. Sorry about that..." she runs the check again quickly. "Looks like it's reading right now. Should improve things some. Running the full test..." Pyotr Zagadka sees the pair doing.. well.. something to the shuttle. The Russian skips upstairs for a few minutes, then comes back down with his laptop and toolkit under his arms. "You call Triple A?" he asks, jokingly. Heather O'Leary smirks at Pyotr, and to Alexis she says, "To pull a plug and turn it around? No need for a tool... Except maybe some rubber gloves next time..." Alexis Ayala blinks, "I should think so." Elizabeth Maxwell laughs and tickles Heather, nodding a little bit. "Definitely rubber gloves next time. Or let me mention how to neutralize the charge before you reach in for it." Heather O'Leary mutters, "You mean, you expected that? Damn girl.. warn a Grease monkey, next time..." Pyotr Zagadka waltzes up to the shuttlecraft, raising an eyebrow." Alexis Ayala bites her lip, "Yeesh. A little caution might not be bad..." Elizabeth Maxwell laughs a little. "I was going to mention something, but you were already running in and grabbing it. Sorry." She hugs a little bit then. "I'll kiss it better soon enough, I promise." Heather O'Leary rolls her eyes, "So, what does that thing say this time?" She motions to the Diagnostic Computer. What she wants Pyotr to be able to get a look at. Since she knows how he likes Visitor Tech. Alexis Ayala smiles softly, "SO maybe, caution, and a little less haste?" Pyotr Zagadka looks at the two women he knows.. and the third he doesn’t.. then pushes the rimless bifocals off his nose tip and squints at the Diagnostic computer past Heather. "Wot is you need?" he asks. Heather O'Leary glances at Alexis, and shrugs, "I'll be fine...." She smiles at Pyotr, "You know computers better than I do, and you like to get a gander at Visitor Technology, so I thought maybe you could help us... Between you and Liz'Beth, there likely is no need of me, except as Manual Labor, and I like that idea..." Elizabeth Maxwell watches the screen, and the text flashing past it in alien letters. "It's still running the checks. A couple things aren't aligned quite right from what I saw, so far. I'm hoping there won't be too much more..." Alexis Ayala looks to Pyotr and raises a hand in a hello wave sort of gesture, "Am I going to be in the way?" Pyotr Zagadka wishes the computer would scroll just a wee bit slower so he could keep up. But if wishes were fishes... He stops and looks at Alexis... then shakes his head and offers that goofy Russian smile. "Nyet. Should not be." he tells her. "I am Pyotr." Heather O'Leary shrugs, "I'll check the obvious, underneath...." She slips under the Skyfighter, and opens a panel. One with the same reading the earlier one had. She does don some pretty heavy Rubber gloves as she plays with the electrical wires in the panel. Elizabeth Maxwell watches Heather do that and smiles. "Just be careful, please?" She keeps watching the display then. "Though you are right, it does need checking..." Alexis Ayala sighs, "I'm sorry you three, I just feel really out of place here." She nods to Pyotr, "Alexis Alaya." Pyotr Zagadka chuckles. "Pleasure, Alexis, to meet you." he says. He leans into the small craft and looks at the screen, but continues talking to Alex. "Why out of place?" he asks. Heather O'Leary's hands slowly and careful trace the wires, looking for any signs of abuse, or rather, that the Skyfighter has some shorts in the circuits. She shrugs slightly, as she does, "Nothing so far. Minor problem with soldering... But it should hold until we overhaul the Wiring..." She closes the panel, and moves to the Laser Cannons sticking out the front, and opens a panel between them. "Holy shit..." She mutters. Elizabeth Maxwell hmms a little and nods, checking it over. "Okay,. good enough..."she pauses. "What's wrong now?" Alexis Ayala nods slowly, and shakes her head, "This isn't my type of thing, I’m completely out of place working on planes, or computers, or alien planes, no less." She says, "I feel like a third wheel..." Pyotr Zagadka chuckles. "Well, what is you do...." he stops and looks away from the screen at Heather, frowning. "Wot is wrong?" Heather O'Leary sighs softly, "Well, looks like the Laser Pump was over charged, and did a Massive Blow out. The Laser Barrels are a little melted... Well, make that really melted, and the pump itself is not here any longer... Looks like someone either installed the Laser Pump wrong, or the seals failed, and the pump decided to over load. Either way, this thing is out of combat until we replace the entire Laser system. I'd bet all the leads are fried from here, all the way to the Attack Computer inside..." Elizabeth Maxwell hmms a little bit and nods. "I'll have to check it then, or someone will. I hope the attack computer isn't fried...." Alexis Ayala blinks softly, looking to Pyotr, "Me? Well, I do guns, really, that's, just what I do, and what I know..." she says, "All of this talk about couplings and polarity and such is for the most part behind me, I know how to take care of visitor weapons and such, but, this is all too much." Heather O'Leary glances at Alexis, "If you can Handle Visitor Rifles, you could work on this... Same Concept, just a larger scale.... MUCH Larger, but it is the same as the Laser Rifle's Laser Pump and Barrels... with the exception of the Splitting of the beams into two barrels..." Alexis Ayala nods, "It's the engines and computers that get me Heather..." Alexis Ayala hmms, looking over the ship, "I guess I could work the weapons on it, but the ship systems, the language, the writing, the engines, the computers, they all confuse me." Elizabeth Maxwell laughs a little bit at that. "I'll handle the computers and the engines. I understand the language and writing enough to know what's being said. Pyotr can help with the translating as well." Pyotr Zagadka ois at Heather's explanation. "It will take week to replace all." he says. "If we have parts, that is." he sighs and sits on the edge of the craft. "Maybe less, if Alexis /can/ help. Easier replacing and re-manufacturing with more then one or two set of hands." he says. Alexis Ayala blinks softly, and nods, slowly, "I might be able to understand the principal behind the beam splitting, I...I think I can do it, I've spent a lot of time with Visitor Firearms...if it's the same principal...I can do it, but I need BIG paper..." Heather O'Leary glances at Pyotr, "I'd say three days. I know where we can get the front end of a Skyfighter... Just unbolt the weapons systems, check the used set for possible problems, and reattach it. Than check the charge and the connection to the computer. We shouldn't have to manufacture anything..." She glances at Elizabeth, "Remember the Power Source we spliced into the House's Power system? I hauled the Skyfighter shell up to the Mountains, and hide it in a building up there. We should be able to salvage the parts we need..." Pyotr Zagadka looks back at Heather and oooohs, looking impressed and a bit relieved. "Da, Three days then." he says. "Sound reasonable. And if I can get hand on, maybe, a combat computer I can maybe come up with way to alleviate another problem Alexis brought up." Elizabeth Maxwell nods a little at Heather and smiles. "Oh. Okay..." she smiles. "That should be easy enough to get done, then." Her face turns a slight shade then. "I tried to fix it right.. not sure why I didn't see some of this stuff." Heather O'Leary shrugs, and moves over to Elizabeth, touching her shoulder, "You aren't a grease monkey... Heck, if I hadn't opened that panel, it wouldn't have been spotted til it needed to fire... I bet it doesn't show on the computer... does it?" Elizabeth Maxwell shakes her head. "Not that I saw, no. Oh well. Nothing's perfect I guess." Alexis Ayala listens to the interchange quietly and hmms, looking to Pyotr once more, "What’s the combat computer for?" Pyotr Zagadka grins and looks at Elizabeth and Heather. "I think, Comrade Elizabeth, I have idea." he says. "We have been trying to get Our computers to interface with Visitors." he says. "Why not work it other way around. On a different premise. Make a 'human skin' interface on visitor computer." he asks, then looks at Alexis. "Combat, or Attack, Computer. regulates combat systems. Aids targeting, friend or foe... thing like that." Alexis Ayala nods slowly, listening for a moment, and sort of likes the way what he suggests sounds, even though she's not real great with computers. Microsoft Office, no problem, fixing them? That's a little different." Heather O'Leary smiles at Liz. "You know, I just thought of something... You repaired this thing, and I helped, and that is what helped us get allot better at our work on Visitor Ships... So, all in all, the two mistakes I've found, one major, and the other.. well, soldering is an acquired skill of a long time, and I am still not great at it... So that is nothing important. And who knows, the Laser pump could have been faulty from the beginning..." Elizabeth Maxwell smiles as she watches the discussion, then blinks at Heather, nodding and smiling. "I suppose it could have. getting nosed down into the ground couldn't have helped it, though..." Heather O'Leary smirks, and leans against the Skyfighter, "Oh, I don't know... Remember Emergency Repair Procedure #1?" She mimes smacking the Skyfighter with her open hand. Pyotr Zagadka looks back at the pair and rolls his eyes. Then looks back at Alexis. "I never knew repairing Alien technology be so female bonding." he jokes. Elizabeth Maxwell laughs and rolls her eyes. "Not quite the same. A little jostling might make it work, a smack like that might loosen its innards." Alexis Ayala shrugs, "Neither did I, I worked guns in an Armory surrounded by MALE bonding in an United States Army base..." Heather O'Leary rolls her eyes at Pyotr and Alexis, and considers something. She shakes her head and sighs, "Dare we check the next one? We are running out of spare parts. We might need to find someplace that has Visitor Skyfighters and Squad Ships being fixed and raid it... But that sounds like a Mothership to me..." Alexis Ayala looks to heather, "You said you had a lot of rifles?"" Alexis Ayala says, "Visitor Rifles?" Heather O'Leary nods, "We do... although, using them to fix the Skyfighter would likely not be the best use of them. We have a couple unopened cases of them from a raid awhile back. But if it comes down to it, we can take the weapons from a Squad Ship, and move them over. That way, the Sky Fighter is combat effective, We don't waste the Laser Rifles better put in the hands of people to use on the Shock Troopers, and the Squad Ship can be used for Grocery Runs up North, or hauling things..." Elizabeth Maxwell nods a little bit. "Even with the guns, a squad vehicle can't easily defend itself. The last one that tried to crashed into the yard." She tickles Heather. "When they were you bringing back from unscheduled skydiving." Heather O'Leary arches an eyebrow, "Skydiving... Skydiving? Is that how I got out of the Mothership?" Damned Memory Holes... Elizabeth Maxwell pokes Heather a little bit and tickles again. "Yup. They saw your parachute, that's how they found you." Pyotr Zagadka chuckles. "Must have been a neat jump" he says. Alexis Ayala giggles, "I've heard that the school for the paratroopers is a lot of fun." Alexis Ayala hmms softly, "So we'll be taking parts from a squad fighter to fix up this one? I think I can manage, but again, big paper..." Pyotr Zagadka looks back at Alexis. "Why paper?" he asks. He hands her the laptop, still closed. Heather O'Leary sighs softly, "I hate Parachutes... I have had many bad things happen after parachuting out of things..." She glances at Alexis, "Actually, only if the parts to fix the Sky fighter are not available form another source will we cannibalize a Squad Ship..." Alexis Ayala smiles softly, "I draw diagrams when I work guns, I'm going to need big diagrams, and probably going to make a few mistakes while drawing my diagrams, so I'll need to redraw..." Alexis Ayala ahs, and nods to Heather, "Hope it doesn't come to that then." Heather O'Leary shrugs, "There is a lot of Paper in some boxes somewhere... draw all you want..." Alexis Ayala nods, "It's a little harder to put a bunch of small pieces together..." she says, with a bit of a smirk, 'Gets even messier." Pyotr Zagadka chuckles. "paper.. So old school." the Russian says. Elizabeth Maxwell wraps an arm around Heather, stroking her hair softly, and nodding at Alexis. "Yeah, I'm sure." Heather O'Leary shrugs, "There is a 'grocery' list in the kitchen. Add Drafting paper rolls to it. I think in the next few days we'll be heading up north to get the stuff on the list... Pyotr Zagadka ohs. "Can you add Jolt to list?" Alexis Ayala eyes Pyotr, "Show me a computer that can make a scale diagram as easily as I can just draw it out?" Heather O'Leary laughs, "Jolt... Not normally able to get that up North. It's just Coke, with a lot of Sugar and Caffeine added... I'll see what we can find... may have to swing through Dallas." She smiles at Liz, and says softly to her, "So, what are the plans for later?" Alexis Ayala adds to Pyotr, "or as large." Pyotr Zagadka smiles and nods at Heather and Li, then looks back to Alexis. "Well... How about you tinker, an /I/ make diagram." he says. LOG ENDS Back Category:Log Category:RATED-PG